When do you feed your toddler?

[bigfishlittlefishtupperwarebox]

Hi all

My 18mo DD is an absolute food monster. She wakes about 7, has a reasonable breakfast of cereal/toast, then fruit about 10ish. Her nap is about 12:30 and she won't sleep if she's hungry so I give her lunch about 11:45, but then she's hungry again when she wakes, and just doesn't understand that a snack would do so wants a sandwich etc. She then has her meal about 4:30 and cereal/toast for supper at 6 before bed at 7. I feel like she's constantly eating. Is that normal? Should I be restricting how much she has?? Any advice appreciated!

She's growing and going through a lot of development.

Is she following the line on the weight chart?

My daughter is 18 months. She has breakfast (mostly hot cereal, ready brek/porridge/weetabix etc) about 8:30, lunch between 12-1 which is always a cooked, dinner sized meal (carb, protein and veg) maybe followed by fruit or yoghurt..and then dinner at 6 with a yoghurt or fruit for pudding followed by milk in bed at 7:30

She might have a biscuit/crisps/fruit between lunch and dinner and drinks a lot of water during the day aswell

Mine is nearly 18mo and a big boy anyway. He has just made the move to one big nap and that is exactly how we do things. He is unbelievably active and has always been steadily in the 98th centile so I'm not worried. Feed em up! Just be glad she has a good appetite and make sure most of what you give is good stuff!

That sounds about right. My DS is 2.5 now and his day is still similar, although we do dinner about 5.30/6 and no supper (although he does have a cup of milk) However I actually think he eats less than he did a year ago as he’s not growing as much

Yes, she's following the 75th pretty well. Glad to know she's not the only one with hollow legs! What do you give as snacks? She loves fruit but there's only so much I can realistically give her, and apart from that and cucumber/carrot sticks I get a bit stumped!

DS likes cheese, crackers, breadsticks, raisins, rice cake/crisp things, as well as fruit and veg

My DS goes to nursery and eats constantly. He has first breakfast at home at 7ish (cereal usually). Then second breakfast at nursery when I drop him off at 8.15 (more cereal and toast). Mid morning snack (breadsticks, veg sticks etc) at 10. Lunch at 11.30 (main meal with pudding). Tea at 3.45 (sandwiches, wraps etc) and then another snack when I pick him up (fruit or biscuit). It’s not quite as constant at the weekends! The portions aren’t big so I’m not too worried, just make sure your portion sizes are appropriate.

I was coming on to say ‘all the flipping time’.
6:30 bottle
7ish porridge
8:30ish toast
Mid morning snack
11:45 lunch
2 bottle after waking, maybe a snack
3:15 snack, crisps and fruit on the schooo run
5 dinner
6:30 bottle.
She is wavering between the 2nd and 15th percentile. She just likes eating!!

Crikey mine 2.5 eats like a sparrow in comparison!

7 cereal/toast plus fruit
1030 either raisins/biscuit/banana etc
1230 lunch - sandwich and a yogurt or scrambled eggs on toast
430/5 dinner - normal hot dinner noodles/roast/pasta etc
7 cup of milk at bed

My two year old grazes lightly all day. And by lightly I mean if you scaled it up for adults you’d be crawling the walls with hunger. And still is putting on weight!